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<blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 3524206" data-attributes="member: 1106">A few observations:1) Traditionally, 32 page adventures haven't sold, yet there seems to be a lot of interest in Adventure Paths, because rather than string together half a dozen unrelated piddling little 32 page vignettes together into a setting that's probably arbitrarily ruled over half of them out for reasons covered in this thread, Adventure Paths are the campaign, and the setting must bow to it or you may as well not bother playing it.&nbsp; Why it's taken 30 years to get to the point where 256 page adventures are becoming the norm and are finally taking priority over extraneous setting nonsense like &quot;FR, GH or Eberron?&quot; is beyond me.&nbsp; I'd estimate that more people have played the Paizo adventure path modules than any other set of adventures in Dungeon.2) Refer to my point about people liking to buy products as much or moreso for daydreaming purposes as for actual use in play.&nbsp; Setting material is marvellous for this purpose, because it's a good read (adventures generally aren't save for the DM's background), letting you dream of grandious campaigns that never might be etc.&nbsp; No wonder it sells better than adventures.&nbsp; It sells well for the same reason that homebrew worldbuilding is so popular - you can focus on and daydream about the sexy macro aspects of the game, and ignore the tedious nitty gritty of stats and encounters.&nbsp; I wonder how many people who bought the FR Underdark book went on to run an Underdark campaign?&nbsp; I suspect that plenty of them just toyed with the idea, and said &quot;one day&quot; before shelving the book.&nbsp; But I could be wrong.3) Good fully prepped adventures are hard to write, and as a result many published adventures kind of suck.&nbsp; Setting tomes can hide their flaws in wishy-washiness and broadly painted strokes, and even if the material sucks for actual play purposes it can always end up a good read regardless.&nbsp; Adventure design has no such luxury, because it has to be specific - it's what actually gets played, and doesn't lend itself to being a good read beyond the intro, so can't fall back on that.&nbsp; No wonder people often look at what's on offer and think &quot;I can do better&quot;, especially if they're mostly 32 pagers that need adapting, making it even less worth the effort.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rounser, post: 3524206, member: 1106"] A few observations: 1) Traditionally, 32 page adventures haven't sold, yet there seems to be a lot of interest in Adventure Paths, because rather than string together half a dozen unrelated piddling little 32 page vignettes together into a setting that's probably arbitrarily ruled over half of them out for reasons covered in this thread, Adventure Paths [i]are[/i] the campaign, and the setting must bow to it or you may as well not bother playing it. Why it's taken 30 years to get to the point where 256 page adventures are becoming the norm and are finally taking priority over extraneous setting nonsense like "FR, GH or Eberron?" is beyond me. I'd estimate that more people have played the Paizo adventure path modules than any other set of adventures in Dungeon. 2) Refer to my point about people liking to buy products as much or moreso for daydreaming purposes as for actual use in play. Setting material is marvellous for this purpose, because it's a good read (adventures generally aren't save for the DM's background), letting you dream of grandious campaigns that never might be etc. No wonder it sells better than adventures. It sells well for the same reason that homebrew worldbuilding is so popular - you can focus on and daydream about the sexy macro aspects of the game, and ignore the tedious nitty gritty of stats and encounters. I wonder how many people who bought the FR Underdark book went on to run an Underdark campaign? I suspect that plenty of them just toyed with the idea, and said "one day" before shelving the book. But I could be wrong. 3) Good fully prepped adventures are [b]hard[/b] to write, and as a result many published adventures kind of suck. Setting tomes can hide their flaws in wishy-washiness and broadly painted strokes, and even if the material sucks for actual play purposes it can always end up a good read regardless. Adventure design has no such luxury, because it has to be specific - it's what actually gets played, and doesn't lend itself to being a good read beyond the intro, so can't fall back on that. No wonder people often look at what's on offer and think "I can do better", especially if they're mostly 32 pagers that need adapting, making it even less worth the effort. [/QUOTE]

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